HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL: All-State football player Patrick Diaz, of Lawton, poses for a photo in Oklahoma CIty, Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011. Photo by Bryan Terry, The Oklahoman

Diaz's father is a policeman in Lawton who also played football for the Wolverines.

So he was plenty aware of the tradition at Lawton before he arrived.

“The bar is set,” Diaz said. “I can't tell you one person on our team that doesn't have it in their mind that they want to set it higher.”

Diaz's performance this season set that bar pretty high. His favorite play of the season came not on defense but on special teams, where he batted down a potential game-tying field goal as time expired to give the Wolverines an 18-15 win over Edmond North late in the season.

It was a few weeks before that, in a 40-36 loss to Edmond Santa Fe, though, where Diaz started to think of himself as one of the state's top players.

“After that game, even though we lost, I felt like I had a really good game,” Diaz said. “I just thought that I've got to keep this up.”